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Do You Lie to Your Children?

Well, do you? One of the areas of mass deception in our society today is in regard to the existence and identity of Santa Claus. This is one area in which it is not only culturally acceptable but also commonly expected that you lie to your children. In fact the deception is so complete that it made news a few years ago when a 1st grade music teacher told his students that there is no Santa Claus. If you don’t believe me, read the following:

That’s what a suburban Dallas music teacher told first-graders on Monday — and the school’s been hearing from parents ever since.

The angry phone calls prompted the Richardson school district to issue a pro-Santa statement.

The district announced that the offending teacher had heard from Santa Claus himself — who assurred the teacher that “the spirit of the holidays is alive and well.” And Santa asked the teacher to pass that message along to students.

News flash (Spoiler Warning): Santa Claus is not real! I’m at least glad that the teacher wasn’t disciplined for telling the truth!

The Santa Claus legend has roots in history. Dr. James Parker (Professor of Christian Philosophy at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) has done a good job of uncovering some of those historical roots in an article playfully titled: “Remythologizing St. Nick: The Search for the Historical Santa“. In this article he shows that jolly ole St. Nicholas was in fact a Bishop of Myra in Lycia (Turkey) who lived from A.D. 280 to A.D. 350. This year, how about giving your children the truth for Christmas? Then maybe they’ll believe you when you insist that Jesus Christ is really the Son of God!

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4 comments

Thanks for the information Steve. We have been telling Josiah that Santa is just pretend, and when we passed him in the LC Walmart the other day, Josiah looked at him and then looked away and said, “He’s just pretend!”. However, we are emphasizing that the story of Jesus isn’t pretend, but instead very real. Thanks for the links and I hope the Weavers have a Merry Christmas!

The lure of Santa is very strong. My wife and I have been teaching our two older kids (ages 6 and 8) that Santa isn’t real. We have been pushing the true story of Saint Nicholas, but still the fictional fat man in the red suit living at the North Pole with elves and flying reindeer has nonetheless invaded our kids’ minds. They get indoctrinated into it at school and I’ve been pushed closer to the decision of homeschooling them because of it.

Santa Claus came to my church for over 25 years, every year. The children loved it. I had just been pastoring the church for around a year; and I was trying to be longsuffering, gradually changing things; but, the Awana commander asked me what I thought about it; and I told him that I thought it was fine to pretend, but that we were lying to the children by telling them that Santa Clause is coming; and that the gifts came from Santa Clause. I suggested still giving them presents, but making them from Jesus, for indirectly, all gifts come from Christ for He is the life-giver and life-sustainer.

I was amazed at how many parents got ticked that Santa Clause wasn’t coming… and of course, I was the one to blame :). They still think I’m crazy for this decision.

At the very least, I don’t understand why the church does this and makes Santa part of the church. I can understand children having fun. I imagine I’ll pretend with my children about Santa Clause, but also Batman, Spiderman, and Batman… did I say Batman? I may even dress up like them, but I won’t act like they’re real. As if my children need another reason to believe another gospel.

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